Vermont Country Store

The Vermont Country Store, Inc., is an American catalog, retail, and e-commerce business based in Vermont with stores in Weston and Rockingham, company headquarters in Manchester, and a distribution facility and customer service center in North Clarendon, near Rutland.

The Vermont Country Store was founded in 1946 in Weston, Vermont, by Vrest and Mildred Ellen Orton, and is still operated by the Orton family.

Although The Vermont Country store first opened in Weston, Vermont, in 1946, its origins lie in the Orton family’s long Vermont history. In 1897, Gardner Lyman Orton, the 8th generation of Ortons in the United States, opened a general store with his father-in-law Melvin Teachout in Calais, Vermont. Gardner's wife Leila gave birth to their eldest son Vrest that same year. The Teachout-Orton general store was the focal point of Vrest's early years and served as the original inspiration for The Vermont Country Store.

After serving in World War I, in France, Vrest entered the class of 1923 at Harvard. He served briefly in the U.S. Consular Service before moving to New York City in 1925. There he was on the staff of H.L. Mencken’s American Mercury, Alfred Knopf publishers, the Saturday Review of Literature, Life magazine, and in 1929 founded the international book collector’s magazine, The Colophon. During this time, Vrest became known as an authority on typography and book collecting and published many articles about various American writers. Vrest returned to Vermont in 1930 and settled in the village of Weston. He married Mildred Ellen Wilcox in 1936 and founded a book publishing company, The Countryman Press, the same year.

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